1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for creating ad campaigns for online advertising.
2. Description of the Related Art
A number of online advertising systems exist for displaying targeted advertisements (also referred to as “sponsored links”) on web pages. To advertise a business via such a system, a person associated with the business typically interacts with a series of web pages of the advertising system to set up one or more ad campaigns. During this process, the person typically specifies the text to be included in a particular ad, the URL of a target or “landing” page, ad targeting information for selecting the ad for display (e.g., one or more keywords or keyword phrases), and pricing information that governs how much the business/advertiser will be charged in connection with ad “click-thru” events (e.g., bid amounts associated with particular keywords). The business/advertiser can also typically specify one or more parameters, such as a daily budget and a campaign termination date, for controlling the timing and frequency with which a given ad is displayed. To encourage users to set up ad campaigns, some advertising systems present a “your ad here” link on web pages that display actual advertisements; this link, which may itself appear as an advertisement, can be selected to enter an ad-campaign-generation pipeline as described above.
Once an ad campaign has been created, the advertising system automatically selects the ad for display on the web pages of one or more web sites, and (typically) charges the advertiser for each resulting ad click-thru event. The particular method used by the advertising system to select ads for display may vary widely. For example, in the case of a search request from a user, the advertising system may present the ads of advertisers that have associated their respective ads with a search term or phrase entered by the user. In the case of a request for a relatively static web page, the advertising system may present those ads deemed to be the most closely related to page's textual content. The methods used to charge the advertisers for ad click-thru events can also vary widely.
Despite its effectiveness, many business owners with an online presence remain reluctant to use online advertising. For example, many business owners simply do not take the time to learn how to create an online advertising campaign. Other business owners are familiar with the ad campaign generation process, but are reluctant to spend the time needed to set up an advertising campaign. The present invention seeks to address these problems.